Rubio Rips Media on IRS: Would Be Lead Story in Every Newspaper if Under Bush

In an appearance on “America’s Newsroom” on the Fox News Channel on Wednesday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) reacted to the revelations coming out of the ongoing Internal Revenue Service scandal and explained why it deserves attention.

Host Bill Hemmer asked Rubio to react to remarks from Washington Post columnist George Will from Tuesday that likened the circumstance of the IRS scandal to Watergate, to which Rubio explained it was deserving of perhaps more attention because of the agency involved.

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“[Will]’s right in this point — this could be bigger than that because the Richard Nixon was terrible,” Rubio said. “And he should have been removed or impeach, but it was involving a political operation. This is one of the most powerful and devastating agencies in the American government — an agency that can ruin your life and put you out of business. And if they have deliberately destroyed evidence to cover up political activity, that is quite dramatic. Now we don’t know that to be the case but that’s why a full investigation is necessary. Unfortunately the IRS is less than cooperative.”

Later in the interview, Rubio took particular issue with the media’s reluctance to cover the scandal and suggested if it had happened during former President George W. Bush’s tenure, it would have gotten different treatment.

“Of course, Fox News covered it,” Rubio added. “But it would be the lead story in virtually every newspaper in America if this was occurring under George W. Bush. But because it’s under Barack Obama it’s covered as a nuisance or covered as a conspiracy theory on the part of Republicans not as the legitimate issue it deserves to be covered as.”